Archive for the ‘Culturomics’ Category

“Erez Lieberman Aiden is a talkative witty fellow, who will bend your ear on any number of intellectual topics. Just don’t ask him what he does. “This is actually the most difficult question that I run into on a regular basis,” he says. “I really don’t have anything for that.”

It is easy to understand why. Aiden is a scientist, yes, but while most of his peers stay within a specific field – say, neuroscience or genetics – Aiden crosses them with almost casual abandon. His research has taken him across molecular biology, linguistics, physics, engineering and mathematics. He was the man behind last year’s “culturomics” study, where he looked at the evolution of human culture through the lens of four per cent of all the books ever published. Before that, he solved the three-dimensional structure of the human genome, studied the mathematics of verbs, and invented an insole called the iShoe that can diagnose balance problems in elderly people. “I guess I just view myself as a scientist,” he says.”

AN: although the profile of Erez is from last year, nonetheless, it is still highly inspiring. All of us can expand our own particular fields of interest by taking a multi / cross/ inter- diciplinary approach to our questionings. The TED talk with Erez and his colleague ,Jean-Baptiste Michel , in 2011 is insightful and delightful !